Crazy eMac question

After my iMac died (DOA) I decided to go with the eMac, my intention to give it to my wife and "upgrade" to a full-featurerd Mac a couple of months down the road. (Cheap try-it-and-see-if-I-like-Mac opportunity.) I'll probably make a decision when the new iMac specs are announced.

Anyhow, right now I have the eMac output mirrored to my Samsung 17" LCD monitor (can't stand CRTs) and am thinking ahead to the next Mac. The Apple 17" Cinema Display looks to be a good deal but it has an interface designed for the Power Macs.

Can the eMac (and its wimpy video card) drive the 17" Apple Cinema Display? You need the ADC adaptor, right? Any limitations I should know about?

I ask because the eMac can't output high enough to fill my Samsung 17" display right now. I think it's a limitation of the mirroring and the CRT. There's a program (DisplayConfigX) that *might* work but I have to shell out the reg fee to unlock the display modes that may or may not work with my setup.

So I'm rightfully worried that the eMac might not be able to drive the Cinema Display. (And, for that matter, if anyone has any suggestions on getting my eMac to fully display on my current monitor that'd be great too!)

you first need to download the hack that will allow you to display different images on both the internal and external monitor and use higher resolutions on the external, i don't remember where the hack is someone else can tell you though

you'll then need a box to convert VGA to ADC that'll go for a couple hundred

you're probably better off getting a samsung or dell VGA monitor they'll sell for 400-500 instead of the studio display which is 700 + the adapter

Don M. said:

After my iMac died (DOA) I decided to go with the eMac, my intention to give it to my wife and "upgrade" to a full-featurerd Mac a couple of months down the road. (Cheap try-it-and-see-if-I-like-Mac opportunity.) I'll probably make a decision when the new iMac specs are announced.

Anyhow, right now I have the eMac output mirrored to my Samsung 17" LCD monitor (can't stand CRTs) and am thinking ahead to the next Mac. The Apple 17" Cinema Display looks to be a good deal but it has an interface designed for the Power Macs.

Can the eMac (and its wimpy video card) drive the 17" Apple Cinema Display? You need the ADC adaptor, right? Any limitations I should know about?

I ask because the eMac can't output high enough to fill my Samsung 17" display right now. I think it's a limitation of the mirroring and the CRT. There's a program (DisplayConfigX) that *might* work but I have to shell out the reg fee to unlock the display modes that may or may not work with my setup.

So I'm rightfully worried that the eMac might not be able to drive the Cinema Display. (And, for that matter, if anyone has any suggestions on getting my eMac to fully display on my current monitor that'd be great too!)

Well the Cinema Display would be for the "new" Mac down the road. I'm really just wondering if there's any way to get it to work on the eMac in the meantime.

I'll try your suggestion to see if that unlocks some more video modes, though. Thanks!

Click to expand...

The native resolution of your LCD is mostly likely 1280x1024 which is the max resolution of the eMac. AFAIK, even in video mirroring, as long as you set the CRT to 1280x1024 (System Preferences > Displays) you should be fine.

First, you'd need to buy the Apple VGA Display Adapter, sold separately (of course). That gets you a VGA plug. The 17" comes with an ADC plug, so you'd need an ADC->DVI adapter (the expensive one that comes with the power supply brick). Then a DVI->VGA adapter.

So, by the time you buy all that, you could just get a cheap VGA monitor and the Apple VGA Display Adapter, which I think is something like $19, and you'd be set. Actually, you probably have a VGA display sitting around somewhere already....

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